Taking Care of the Caregivers
We keep hearing stories about child care centers across the state that have lost staff and are having incredible difficulty hiring new teachers. Turnover in our industry has always been higher than average, but the global pandemic has forced good teachers out of the field as covid restrictions and the very real risk of face-to-face, in-person learning make this job incredibly stressful and exhausting.
Our teachers are our greatest resource. They determine the level of program quality. And the ability to hire and retain staff can even determine a program’s ability to keep its doors open. It is critically important that teachers are well supported, well trained and well compensated and that a culture of respect and value is nurtured. Our children depend on it.
At Garden Gate we value our staff above all else. Just as we respect the rights of our children and our families, we respect the rights of our teachers - the right to work in a supportive, emotionally healthy environment; the right to earn a worthy wage; the right to meaningful, personally motivated, professional development; the right to participate, be listened to, and make a personal impact on programming; the right to have their own personal and family needs respected; and, in our case, the right to do “nothing without joy”.
Taking care of the caregivers has paid off at Garden Gate. Our founding Directors, Dawn Warner and Leigh Ann Yuen, have been with the organization since its opening in 1999. Lead Teachers Delia Gibson and Amanda Kane have been at the school just about as long - Delia has been teaching at Garden Gate since it opened and Amanda has been with us since 2001, taking only a few years off to stay home with her two children when they were young. Teacher Trina Welch came on board more recently but quickly became an integral part of our staff. Trina’s first experiences as an assistant teacher at Garden Gate inspired her to pursue her own career in Early Childhood Education. She achieved teacher certification and is now taking courses to become lead teacher certified. Assistant Teacher Sandra Miller came to us after several years of working in education in New York City. She has provided us with consistent, dependable support since 2016. Our summer program has traditionally served as an in-house training program for future teachers, with many of our own grown alumni students coming back to work as summer assistants. We currently have two summer assistants returning for the third summer. Both Amanda Pachico and Andrea Guyther are enrolled in college programs in early childhood education and have become valued members of our staff, working not only summers but also whenever they are home and available on college break. It is so rewarding to see the progression of our staff as they find their own ways in this field.
Now more than ever it is critical to take care of our early childhood educators. The pandemic has hit childcare centers and early childhood programs hard. While essential workers in other fields have been recognized for the risks they undertake, received hazard pay, covid-testing and vaccines, early childhood teachers have gone back to work, face-to-face with young children who are not capable of many virus mitigating practices, without regular testing and so far, without vaccines.
So far Garden Gate has weathered the storm. We have been able to reopen safely and provide a consistently healthy work environment for our teachers. Clear and honest communication, increased cleaning protocols, covid reopening strategies, and reporting policies for families and staff have all contributed to an environment which frees our teachers to do what they do - honor children and the work of childhood. Our teachers keep showing up, day after day, bringing their best selves to this challenging, yet rewarding, work. For this we are extremely grateful.
Leigh Ann Yuen has been teaching and advocating for children on Martha’s Vineyard for more than 25 years. She is a founder, co-director and lead teacher at Garden Gate Child Development Center in Vineyard Haven.